Human Remains From Medieval Castle Reveal Secrets of Warrior Monks

The castle of Zorita de los Canes in Guadalajara, Spain. The remains of the warrior monks were exhumed from the cemetery at the site.

A study of medieval human remains from a castle in Spain has unraveled fascinating insights into a group of warrior monks.

Researchers examined the remains of 25 individuals buried between the 12th and 15th centuries in the cemetery of the castle at Zorita de los Canes, which is located in the center of the country. This cemetery is where members of a Christian military and religious order—known as the Order of Calatrava knights—were buried.

After the remains were exhumed, the team's analysis helped to shed light on the diet, lifestyle and causes of death of the deceased.

"It is clear... that they died in battle," Patxi Pérez-Ramallo, an archaeologist and author of the study with the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany, told Newsweek.

The results of the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, indicate that 23 of the individuals had marks on their bones compatible with a violent death.

These were primarily penetrating puncture wounds and blunt force injuries found on the parts of the body that were unprotected by armor from the weapons of the time, such as the upper part of the skull, the cheeks and the inner part of the pelvis.

The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that these remains belong to warrior monks, according to the researchers.

"Regarding the study of the warrior monks of the Order of Calatrava from the Castle of Zorita, it is something exceptional. It is the first time, including in the Near East, that warrior monks have been so clearly identified. This group of warrior monks represents a pioneering study in terms of both their numbers and their identification."

Isotopic analysis of the bones, which aimed to recreate the diet of the individuals, enabled the researchers to investigate their social status, and even understand the hierarchy within the Order. This hierarchy included the leaders (belonging to the high nobility), the knights (lower nobility and urban elite) and peasant individuals.

The results suggested a diet rich in poultry and marine fish in this inland population, which was typical of medieval high society at the time. Taking this into account, the researchers propose that the Order predominantly comprised the lower nobility and urban elite, in agreement with historical sources.

But the presence of individuals with diets more typical of other social statuses implies that the cemetery might not have been exclusively reserved for the order's elite but also included members of lower statuses within it, according to the authors.

"It was fascinating to see that, although the archaeology provided no direct evidence of their identities, our study helped to identify them and, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle—our results fit with historical sources describing the order and its function," Pérez-Ramallo said

The researchers also studied animal remains found around the castle, which complemented the findings from the isotopic analysis of the human remains.

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